FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device and to a method allowing, from the (Eddy) current losses generated in a partly conductive medium or body, for at least a characteristic of the medium to be obtained.
The present invention may be applied for testing characteristics of a medium or part of a medium having a low conductivity value, this value being translated into low Foucault current values.
The invention is particularly applicable to the production of effulent, where the phases contained in an effluent comprising for example a low-conductivity aqueous phase, an organic phase and a gas phase are generally to be tested or measured.
It may therefore be applied to the determination of the amounts or flow rates of the hydrocarbon components constituting these three distinct phases contained in a single volume, with these measurements being generally difficult to obtain continuously.
The invention may be particularly applied to oil production, where the amounts or the flow rates of the hydrocarbon components contained in a single volume are generally desirable to measure these components constituting three distinct phases which are difficult to analyze continuously.
This invention may be applied more particularly within its scope to crude dehydration, environmental protection or crude storage control.
The invention further allows, in the case of fluid storage management, the separation dynamics of the phases constituting a fluid contained in a single volume to be measured, one of these phases being conductive, and in particular to know the decantation time of the fluid.
The invention may also be of use in the measuring of the level or of the volume of the conductive phase of a fluid, notably for a liquid conductive phase, the fluid being contained in a determined volume or flowing in a pipe.